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‘Dr. Who,’ ‘Torchwood’ and the BBC at Comic-Con

I’m excited to be moderating several Comic-Con panels this year for the first time and by "excited," of course, I mean "paralyzed with fear."

Here’s the press release about three of them, all for the BBC, which is coming to Comic-Con in a big way with "Torchwood," "Dr. Who," "Spaced" and their new show, "Primeval":

The BBC is coming to Comic-Con 2008 with its first ever BBC AMERICA booth plus an army of creators and stars from international hit series Doctor Who, Torchwood, Primeval and Spaced. The booth on the exhibition floor will promote BBC Video, associated merchandise as well as BBC AMERICA’s Supernatural Saturdays, home of Doctor Who, Torchwood and Primeval.

Thursday, July 24 kicks things off with a panel featuring Britain’s most successful sci-fi franchise. The Doctor Who panel includes the BAFTA winning executive producer and lead writer Steven Moffat and executive producer Julie Gardner. It is followed by a Torchwood panel – BBC AMERICA’s highest rated television show ever – with actors John Barrowman, Gareth David-Lloyd and Naoko Mori and executive producer Julie Gardner.

Friday, July 25 sees a panel for the clever and edgy comedy Spaced with creator-stars Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), Jessica Hynes (Shaun of the Dead, Son of Rambow), and director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz). The panel will be moderated by Drew ‘Moriarty’ McWeeny, West Coast editor of Ain’t It Cool News. Created for fanboys and fangirls, Spaced will be available for the first time in North America in a DVD set on July 22 and on sale at the BBC booth. Later that evening, there will be a special screening of three episodes as chosen by the fans, log on to http://www.spacedinvasion.com to get involved.

BBC AMERICA’s newest sci-fi hit, Primeval, will also be represented with a panel on Friday, July 25 featuring actors Douglas Henshall, Juliet Aubrey and Karl Theobald discussing their onscreen battle to save humanity from prehistoric creatures invading the present day world.

The Doctor Who, Torchwood and Primeval panels will be moderated by Los Angeles Times writer Geoff Boucher. Boucher, who has written about Hollywood and the music industry for a decade for The Times, is also the lead blogger on Hero Complex, which has insider coverage of genre films, graphic novels, science fiction and all the other heroic pursuits in pop culture.

BBC AMERICA’s booth (#3629) on the exhibition floor will host various signings on Thursday and Friday related to all four programs. Fans will be able to purchase DVD sets from BBC Video and merchandise from a range of licensees

Update: The press release came over from the BBC with some dates scrambled, they are corrected in the text as it appears above.

– Geoff Boucher

photo of John Barrowman, left, with guest star James Marsters on "Torchwood" by Todd Anthony BBC Worldwide